The book I read this week is a little unusual; it is a Western. I’ve read them, of course. I’ve read many Louis L’Amour. I met Terrance McCauley at the Rensselaer Library. He writes both mysteries and westerns.
I really enjoyed this tale of Sheriff Mackey. Forced to shoot a group of saloon rats and planting them in “Mackey’s garden”, the Sheriff raises the ire of both the local banker who is planning a deal with a railroad baron and also a psychopathic killer. He is determined to punish Mackey for killing his buddies. The bullets fly. Definitely escapist literature.
Although I read a mystery this week, I also read a tween novel by Gordon Korman. It was recommended by two eleven year olds.
Jett Baranov is the spoiled son of a tech billionaire and Doctors Without Borders mother who is always traveling. His last display of acting out gets him sent to Oasis, a vegetarian, unplugged camp, along with his long suffering minder Matt.
Jeff is immediately determined to get kicked out, as he has several other camps. He breaks into the office and steals his phone back, using it to order a hovercraft and some other items. But he is not thrown out and his father refuses to intervene.
The discovery of a small lizard named Needles brings Jett into a small group who hide and feed the creature and bond with one another.
But something is not right at Oasis. Who lives in the mansion outside of town and what is he hiding?
Funny and with one plot twist after another. Highly recommended.
Now for a change of pace; Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie.
Syd Walker shakes the dust of Oklahoma off her feet as soon as she can, although she becomes an archeologist working for the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs). As a child, she was traumatized when two men broke into a trailer and threatened Syd, her sister and best friend Luna. Syd shoots one of the men dead. The other, Luna and her parents are thought to have burned up in the trailer. Syd experiences recurring bad dreams and her sister, although rescued, gets into drugs.
But now Syd has been drawn back to search for her sister who has gone missing. A skull with Syd’s badge has been placed in a tree. Although not Emma Lou, it is the skull of a missing girl.
On the advice of a friend, I read The End of Everything by Victor Davis Hanson.
This is quite different from the novels I usually read.
Hanson takes four societies – Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople and Tenochtitlan – to discuss war and obliteration. His central thesis is that, through naïveté and foolish confidence, some societies are utterly annihilated. Thebes, for example, was destroyed by Alexander the Great, Carthage by the Romans, Constantinople by the Ottomans and Tenochtitlan by Cortez.
Both Thebes and Constantinople believed (foolishly according to Hanson) their walls and fortifications would protect them. Carthage did not realize Rome still held a grudge for a previous war. And in Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs were more interested in capturing their enemies for sacrifice to their Gods than killing them. The Spanish, trained soldiers all, mowed the Aztecs down with their superior armor and weaponry despite their much smaller numbers. The winners then felt they had a right to totally destroy the society, apparently because the loser didn’t just give up.
Although he doesn’t pull this out of his central argument, my takeaway is that each of these societies were destroyed by an invader/conquorer. Although the Aztecs were vastly outmatched by the steel armor and the guns of the Spanish, in the other three cases the military technology was roughly even.
Then my question would be: Should the early American colonists have given up in the face of Great Britain’s might? True, there were factors that gave the early Americans an edge (the distance across the Atlantic, British military tactics that remained unchanged against the guerrilla warfare practiced by the Americans, and the entry of the French on the American side) but we were vastly outmatched. We withdrew from Vietnam, despite our superior military power. And should Ukraine fold and allow Putin and Russia to sweep over them?
This week I read Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce.
This was an Edgar Award winner in the Children’s category. It reminded me strongly of the Enola Holmes books and Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series. Here’s an interesting fact. Although all the protagonists are young girls (opinionated and very bright, it goes without saying), the Bradley mysteries are considered adult while the Enola Holmes and Myrtle Hardcastles are classed as children’s lit.
Myrtle is a bright twelve year-old with an obsession for criminal justice. In the interest of science, she Observes (she always capitalizes this word) her neighbors. When her next door neighbor, an eccentric older lady who breeds lilies, dies under Mysterious Circumstances, Myrtles sees her chance to investigate. Armed with her mother’s microscope, and accompanied by her governess, Miss Judson, Myrtle sets about proving that Miss Woodhouse was murdered. No one believes her, not even her father, but Myrtle perseveres, putting not only herself in danger but also her father.
I really enjoyed the mystery and Myrtle is a great character. However, a young reader would have to be a very good reader to enjoy Premeditated Myrtle.
Recommended with reservations.
Just a reminder: I will be at Rensselaer Public Library Saturday, 1 to 3. The event is free. I will be giving away a copy of Death in Salem to all who buy a book.
This week I read the fifth in the C.J. Bellamy Burgoyne mystery series, Primrose Hill.
Sophie, Flora, Ada and Mrs Barker are sent to a house on Primrose Hill by Inspector Penrose to investigate a murder. To fit in with the other residents, Sophie is given a dog. To complicate matters, the Home Office has been watching one of the houses which is inhabited by Bolsheviks. Sophie is given strict instructions not to engage the members of that house at all.
Gradually, Sophie and Flora begin to meet the other residents of the hill. Who could have killed Mr. Hamilton? And what was the weapon?
The situation become further confused as the Home Office sends agents into the house to watch number fifteen, the house of the Communists. With whom, I might add, Sophie does become involved.
As usual, the book was light and fun. However, there were almost too many stories. The spying theme, the murder, the introduction to Indian food. By the time the reveal of the murder occurred, I was confused about which of the Primrose Hill residents this was.
This week I read two books by members of my writing group – the Mavens of Mayhem.
A Wedding Gone to the Dogs is the fourth in Kazlo’s cozy Samantha Davies series. In this outing, Samantha and her cousin Candie are preparing for Candie’s wedding. Of course, nothing goes smoothly. One of Candie’s previous suitors has photos of her – and those photos might disrupt her relationship. More concerning, a dead man is found in Candie’s house and it looks suspiciously as though she has murdered him. Samantha is convinced her cousin could not be involved and investigates.
Frothy and fun.
The second mystery could not be more different. Autumn Embers by Tina De Bellegarde is a more traditional mystery.
While Sheriff Mike is worried about his upcoming election (and is already upset over his separation from his wife, Bianca is heading to Kyoto, Japan to visit her son. A murder, witnessed by Bianca, upsets everything. J.C. was universally disliked so there are many suspects, including Bianca’s son Ian. In a foreign country with none of her usual supports, Bianca calls Mike for help. He runs background checks on some of the other expats and gradually Bianca unravels the mystery.
De Bellegarde’s admiration and affection for Japan shine thorough out this beautifully written mystery. It really inspires me to visit Japan myself. Highly Recommended.
Tragedy’s Twin is the second Carrie Lisbon mystery by Chris Keeper. (After No Comfort for the Undertaker.)
In this outing, Carrie and her Uncle have left Hope Bridge to visit a relative in Duncan, New York. Carrie has an ulterior motive; Sheriff Del Morgan is also in Duncan. Despite their vow to forget about their impulsive one night stand, Carrie can’t resist her attraction to the Sheriff.
Unexpectedly, Carrie is called to the local poorhouse to tend to one of the women there. She is supposed to have fallen from a window, but Carrie immediately notes the scratches on Abbie’s arms and hands. The fact that the poorhouse windows only open eight inches convince Carrie something about the death is wrong. Enter the Sheriff who agrees and the two are involved in another case, one in which Carrie is almost murdered.
This mystery has everything. Intriguing characters, a fascinating setting, a great story and excellent writing. The Carrie Lisbon series deserves a wide readership.
This title, written by Jacqueline Boulden is the winner of several Indie awards.
At a corporate function, Emily Archer, tired of the sexist comments and harassment, slaps a man who gropes her. Since he is an important client of her company, she is immediately threatened with dismissal. Her boss manages to keep that from happening but she is suspended. Therapy reveals a long ago trauma.
Now sensitized, she is made uncomfortable by the behavior of a new hire. This evolves in the reveal of a sexual predator, and puts her life in danger.
Although not a whodunit, engrossing. Recommended.
I also read the new mystery of Donna Leon.
I’ve read all of Leon’s books and greatly enjoyed them but I found this one disappointing. The book starts with a bang. The members of two gangs are arrested and brought into the station. When the father of one of the boys, does not pick him up, Griffoni walks him home. At the same time, Brunetti is asked to vet that father, Dario Monteforte, for a job.
Monteforte, lauded as a hero twenty years previously, was never awarded a medal. Why the contradiction?
The case becomes even more serious when the forensic scientist, Enzo Bocchese, is attacked in his apartment.
I found this book confusing. The two halves don’t mesh well and it felt to me as though two different stories had been mashed together. Leon’s writing is, as usual, lovely and her characters are wonderful but I felt the story was disappointing.
I read quite a few books while I was on vacation but I will discuss only one: The Yellow Wife by Sadequa Johnson.
Phelby is the daughter of the plantation’s master and thus grows up petted and treated differently than most enslaved people on the plantation. She has been promised her freedom at sixteen but instead, while the master is away, Phelby’s mother dies and the mistress (a jealous and vengeful woman) sells Phelby. She is supposed to be sold to a ‘fancy house’, a brothel but while the line of slaves is being held at an intermediate point, the jailor sees her and pulls her out to become his mistress. She bears him several children and after the Civil War, when intermarriage is allowed, he marries her.
I wanted to read this because, although it takes place later in the 1800s than my own book – Death in the Great Dismal – it does have some similarities.
First, both deal with slavery. Writing about this very thorny subject was difficult for me and it took me a long time to reach the point when I felt I could do it.
Both also feature a mixed race woman involved with a white man/master. Both include a white woman who was jealous of the mixed race woman.
Of course, there were some obvious differences. My protagonist, Will Rees, is a white man. He is also a northerner, outside of the Southern culture, and so always maintains a certain distance. Johnson wrote her book from the point of view of Phelby herself, the woman at the center of the action. My mixed race character, Sandy, fancies herself in love. Phelby’s reaction to the jailor who plucks her out of the coffle to become his mistress/wife is much more nuanced. She’s afraid of him but remains tied to him until his death. Although her children, all but one, escape to the north and pass for white, Phelby does not. My character Sandy does escape with Rees and Lydia after a severe beating by the mistress of the house. I wanted a happy ending.
Since I wrote my mystery as entertainment, the story is not as dark as The Yellow Wife. I suspect it is more accurate to the experiences of the times.
I will be at the Albany Book Fair on Saturday from 10 am to 4pm. The Festival is held in the upper campus; my table will be in the ballroom. Stop by for a chat if you’re in the area.
